| Author |
Message |
    
Stacy Anderson
Awareness Member
Post Number:
42
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 12:06 pm: |   |
Hello All,
How do you approach an agency AFTER you are offered publication for a fiction book? Of course I know this must be done before the contract is signed or else, what's the point? Secondly, if you think your book may be film material, how does one go about submitting this to the film industry? Do you need a Hollywood agent or a literary agent with film industry contacts? Are there other options for submitting books or ideas to Hollywood? Your input is greatly appreciated. I have a feeling other writers need this question answered as well.
Victoria or anyone? Thanks in advance!
Stacy-Deanne
www.stacy-deanne.net
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LaurieAnne
Unity Member
Post Number:
1487
Registered: 12-2001
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 04:46 pm: | |
Stacy,
I wish I could help you, but I'm not agent-friendly. The only reason I could think of for signing with an agent after the contract has been offered is to intentionally WANT to give away 15% of your royalties. LOL
I would think more of a personal secretary or marketing assistant rather than an agent, but I'm not the best one to ask. As I said, I'm not agent-friendly.
LA
www.authorsinkbooks.com
| **** Available Now ****
| ~~~THE BUTTERFLY GAME by Gloria Davidson Marlow~~~
|
| **** Coming Soon ****
| ~~~DARKNESS AND DREAMS by Elura Michael-Josephine Coren~~~
LaurieAnne
|
Kevin P. Grover
Unity Member
Post Number:
1187
Registered: 03-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 06:40 pm: | |
The sole purpose of a literary agent is to sell your book to a publisher. If you already have a contract, there is no need for an agent.
As for movies and such...you need to either solicit the studios yourself or find an agent that handles only movie/TV rights.
www.winterwolfpublishing.com |
Stacy Anderson
Awareness Member
Post Number:
43
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 07:46 pm: | |
Thanks Kevin and LaurieAnne,
I plan to stick with the publisher I have currently but I thought I needed an agent to get better advances. I will polish up on my own negotiating skills, LOL. I am fine without having an agent of course! In fact I prefer it this way. LOL, believe me I don't want to give any money away. It used to be you needed an agent for everything but I see times are changing and maybe that's a good thing. I even heard agents may one day become obsolete because soon big-time publishers will have lost so much money giving out undeserving advances to certain writers. I am a member of the Author's Guild and since they help authors negotiate contracts I will check with them too. I'll also get some books that will help.
Kevin,
Thank you for clearing this up. Your answer seems logical because I wouldn't want a literary agent just to sell my book as a film. Thanks for your help!
Success to you both!
Stacy-Deanne
www.stacy-deanne.net |
Frank P. Baron
Awareness Member
Post Number:
22
Registered: 10-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, June 05, 2004 - 09:13 am: | |
I have to respectfully disagree with Kevin. Selling a book to a publisher is only one of agent's duties. A good one will negotiate a better contract for you than you can yourself. This alone can more than offset his/her 15%. The agent also takes care of foreign sales, may negotiate film rights plus ensure the royalties are paid on time and attend to other bookeeping tasks; thus leaving the writer more time to do what he/she does best.
Author: What Fish Don't Want You to Know |
Lenora Rose (Unregistered Guest)
Work-in-progress guest
Posted From: 24.79.70.130
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 01, 2004 - 01:54 pm: | |
Frank Baron is right. A good agent (Amphasis on good) will net you a better contract than you can net yourself, as they will have the experience to know what clauses are reasonable, and to catch things that you cannot.
Of course, a lawyer who is an expert at copyright and publishing contract issues could look the contract over for you, but this necessitates finding someone who is an expert in these areas, favours the authors' side, and won't overcharge you. And lives near you. This will probably be harder to find than a reputable agent.
Also, a good agent will have inside contacts at most major book publishers in their area(s) of expertise. If you are thinking in terms of many books, and plan to keep publishing long term, it's probably easier and possibly less costly to get a good agent.
A Good agent = one with experience in your genre and a high reputation. It doesn't have to be Stephen King's agent, but they should either have known book sales to publishers whose name you immediately recognize, or have worked for some time within the industry.
As for how to contact them, I suspect that's not much different from before. Just makes sure that they know this is for a book already sold, and that you need a fairly quick response due to same. Believe it or not, with the first acceptance already in, they will be interested. |
Kevin P. Grover
Unity Member
Post Number:
1204
Registered: 03-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 02, 2004 - 06:45 am: | |
Please allow me to clarify.
Yes, there are times when agents can get better for you than you can. I answered on the grounds that if you submit a manuscript to me and I accept it with a contract offer, I personally feel that the agent you seek out at that point is going to get paid for doing nothing. I had one person who sent a manuscript, I accepted it, and the contract was agreed upon. However, she ten told me that she notified the agencies that she had sent it to (to inform them that it was accepted) and one came back with an offer to vet the contract and act upon her behalf. I dropped it because I was not about to get involved with an agent who was merely out to make a profit for nothing.
Now, I am referring to the agents who merely work to get you a contract and then, once you are signed, have nothing to do but collect your check and disperse your portion...collecting their percentage for merely acting as a middleman with no purpose.
I guess I have this viewpoint because there is VERY little that is not negotiable with our contract, and most of the questionable areas were discussed with Victoria before we went live with everything.
www.winterwolfpublishing.com |
F.E. Mazur (Unregistered Guest)
Work-in-progress guest
Posted From: 4.131.54.28
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 02, 2004 - 07:16 am: | |
There remains a basic matter that appears to me to have been overlooked regarding agents. Above all, an agent is working for him/herself, collecting 15 percent of the revenues earned by their clients' literary work. (If you doubt this is true, you need only consider whose side an agent would take in a dispute between a relatively unknown writer and a publishing house with whom the agent enjoyed previous placements.) This is not a bad thing; this is a good thing. Now perhaps the agent Kevin referred to above was only interested in making a quick buck, but if not, if the agent was a good one, then that person recognized that a book already accepted for publication is easier to sell in other lucrative corners. Let's say a writer receives a $10,000 advance. With the $1500 the agent collects, s/he can then afford, as Frank Baron has stated in other words, to make a few phone calls, write some letters, pick up the tab at a lunch or two with contacts from paperback publishers, book club executives, movie and television people, foreign publishers, all in an effort to extend the dollar value of the writer's work from which 15 percent will continue to be withdrawn by the agent. Writers and a whole host of publishers, especially smaller ones, do not have the time to do these other explorations, and a successful agent in these areas can benefit everyone. |
priceless1
Wandering Member
Post Number:
202
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 02, 2004 - 09:25 am: | |
Kevin, well said. You beat me to the punch.
"Writers and a whole host of publishers, especially smaller ones, do not have the time to do these other explorations, and a successful agent in these areas can benefit everyone."
This is dependent upon whether the small publisher has a marketing department. Either way, if an author is getting a $10,000 advance, they are in a different league from a small publisher. In that case, those publishers definitely have a marketing department for the simple fact that no one is going to shell out that kind of an advance without being assured of getting a return on their money. It is those cases where an agent may be of use.
Lynn
Lynn
behlerpublications.com
lynnprice.net
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James D. Macdonald
Awareness Member
Post Number:
3
Registered: 10-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 14, 2004 - 03:04 pm: | |
There's another reason to get an agent after you've received a contract offer, other than that the agent knows where the landmines are in the contract and will be able to defuse them.
You're not just thinking about this book, are you? What about the book after, and the book after that? Now's an excellent time to snare an agent for your subsequent career.
How to do it: You already have a list of the agents you'd like to have representing you, right? Start making phone calls. |
Gary D. Kessler
Wandering Member
Post Number:
185
Registered: 07-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 14, 2004 - 03:34 pm: | |
There are a considerable number of both agents and publishers who actively work and handle the subsidiary rights on a book, including movie rights (and a considerable number who don't). You just have to look at the backgrounds and track records of agents/publishers before submitting to them and/or signing with them and compare them on movie-selling . If you think you can sell the moviet rights on your own better than your agent/publisher will (which is rarely possible) or believe you will be able to sign with a Hollywood agent for a separate rights deal (also rarely possible for those who aren't already big in the business), you need to make sure you have retained this right when you sign your contracts.
Do you have the substance of the offer already from the publisher, by the way? What does that say about what they want in terms of subsidiary rights assignment?
http:www.editsbooks.com
"Finding Go: Matching Questions and Resources in Getting Published" (with Carol Kluz, Winterwolf, September 2004) |
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